Section One - Part Three: Selection of the Kings

by Iain Mac an tSaoir

Who knows exactly at what point the selection of kings began, or what proceedures were used to select the first king. We can be fairly certain that the person's ability, coupled with their charisma were major factors. In the societies which descended from the Indo-Europeans, the position of the King held, as this whole article has to date shown, a position which by its nature was sacred.

Through the mating with the Mare, the King was coupled to the Goddess of Sovereignty of the land. Through the sacrifice the cosmos was renewed. Through the division of the sacrifice into three parts, each representing a segment of the society, and the King consuming of the three parts, he belonged to all three segments. The whole of the people became represented in him. (1)

What needs to be addressed is the selection process of the kings in Gaelic culture. This is a topic that is rarely if ever addressed from a factual point of view. Usually the focus is on the potential meanings of the metaphorical language found in lore. While we can with some confidence speculate that the lore is addressing possible initiatory elements in the ascent to kinghood (2), what is being addressed here are the actual selection processes of the king himself.

The scene that Cambrensis described took place in the 11th century, and shows the rites through which the king ascended to governance. There are quite a few Irish law tracts from before that time which describe the process for selecting kings. While things may have changed slighty through the centuries, we know from these law tracts exact details of the procedure. According to Fergus Kelly, things were pretty much the same at the fall of Gaelic civil order in the seventeenth century, as it was in the 8th century (3). One such tract is called C/oic Conairi Fuigill, which interpreted means "The Five Paths Of Judgement". This law tract states that a pretender to kingship must be a son of a king (mac flatha) and the grandson of a king. This tract is detailed enough to tell us that if a man's father had been a king, but his grandfather had not, then he was only a "middle ranking king" (flaith med/onac).(4) This wasn't primogenitor exactly, it was more that the list of candidates came from families of enough standing and experience in leading as chieftain. It was from the list of candidates from certain families that the chieftain was selected.

C/oic Conairi Fuigill also confirms what has been found in many other places about the condition of the pretender. In the eyes of the law he must be beyond reproach (innraic), nor could he be guilty of theft, nor could he have any physical blemish.(5) According to this tract, there were even minimum requirements for property owned (ni bi r/i r/i cen fola). To the new king's own property, new land was added. These lands came from gelfines. This makes sense when one considers the laws regarding the requirements of the King's Brugiadh and other things. He had to be able to fulfill his title. This included taking care of those who functioned as royal officials.(6)

SOURCES

1. Death War and Sacrifice, Bruce Lincoln
2. The lore is repleat with examples of metaphorical language regarding kings and kings to be. A frequent theme is the "kissing of the Hag". In this there is repulsion felt by many pretenders to the kingship. But one overcomes the repulsion of sovereingty, kisses the hag, after which she turns into a beautiful woman.
3. A Guide To Early Irish Law, Fergus Kelly, Dundalgan Press Ltd., 1988,ISBN 0790-4657 & 0-901282-95-2.
4. "C/oic Conairi Fuigill, Die funf Wege zum Urteil, ein altirischer Rechstext", Thurneyson, Berlin, 1925
5. Ibid
6. Ibid

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